Legalize Pot? Should Marijuana Be Legalized and Taxed?
State legislators propose full legalization of marijuana, which would be taxed and regulated like alcohol.
It is time again to end a useless prohibition, according to two legislators who have proposed legalizing marijuana.
Rep. Edith Ajello and Sen. Donna Nesselbush announced Wednesday they have proposed legislation to legalize marijuana possession in Rhode Island for adults age 21 and older. Pot would be regulated and taxed similar to alcohol under their proposal. The legislation follows last year's decriminalization of marijuana possession in Rhode Island, due to go into effect this spring.
“It is time for Rhode Island to put the failed policy of marijuana prohibition behind us and adopt a more sensible approach just as our nation did with alcohol 80 years ago,” Ajello said in a prelease. “Regulating marijuana like alcohol will take marijuana sales off the street and put them in the hands of legitimate businesses that would face real disincentives for selling to minors. These new businesses will also create jobs and generate much-needed new tax revenue.”
Under the Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act, Rhode Islanders over 21 would be permitted ton have up to an ounce of marijuana and grow up to three marijuana plants in their homes.
The legislation also calls for licensed marijuana retail stores, grow facilities and testing facilities to ensure that marijuana sold in Rhode Island is free of contaminants or other drugs. Under the bill, the Department of Business Regulation would establish rules regulating security, labeling, health and safety requirements, and rules requiring advertising of marijuana, which must be no less restrictive than the rules for tobacco advertising.
The legislation would charge an excise tax of up to $50 per ounce on wholesale purchases of marijuana. Retailers would also be required to collect the state’s 7-percent sales tax.
Nesselbush and Diaz said banning marijuana has done little to stop drug use, and instead has created a black market that makes buying marijuana more dangerous and supports gangs and cartels. The state could make marijuana use safer while tax dollars.
“Taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana will rob drug dealers of one of their reasons for being," Nesselbush said. "It will likely reduce crime, weaken gangs and cartels and allow our hard-working law enforcement officials to focus on serious and/or violent crime. Taxing and regulating would also create the potential for much-needed state revenue."
Even if the proposal passes, Rhode Islanders are not necessarily safe from prosecution. Federal laws prohibiting marijuana stiil apply, though most arrests for marijuana possession are made under state law, and legislation was introduced in Congress Tuesday to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana federally.
Rhode Island would not be alone in legalizing the substance. In November, voters in Colorado and Washington approved laws that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. Similar bills have also been introduced this year in the Hawaii and New Hampshire state legislatures, and are expected in Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
What do you think? Should marijuana be legalized and taxed? Do you think the General Assembly will approve the legislation?
John M
6:59 am on Friday, February 8, 2013
Drugs have caused enough problems in our Country,they have ruined many
families with pain,heartache and even death,not to mention that drug users
will do anything to get them,including robbery,stealing and more.Enough is enough
when will we wake up?
Kevin Sterling
9:57 am on Friday, February 8, 2013
Well John, at least you're aware that you're in dream land. But it's time that we stop letting people like you cause the nightmare of prohibition to continue. You haven't got a clue about the reality of this subject and it is time to lay the proven failure of absolute prohibition to bed. It's beyond absurd that people like you can't face the utter failure of public policy that is embodied by prohibition and seek to continue to make our society to suffer.
When you wake up, perhaps we can have an adult discussion about fixing reality.
Toodles!
Melanie
11:53 am on Friday, February 8, 2013
I agree with you John. It's people like Kevin who need to wake up to the realities of drugs. Could his brains be so fried that he's in the dreamland?
Kevin_Hunt
12:07 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
No one has ever died from marijuana. The reason that hard drug users (heroin, meth, etc.) steal is that the price of drugs is kept artificially high. The vast majority of problems you have mentioned are due to the illegality of some drugs, not the drugs themselves. Portugal decriminalized ALL drugs in 2000.
Here are the annual prevalence use rates (in percent of population ages 15-64) from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime "World Drug Report 2011":
Opioids
U.S. 5.90
Portugal 0.46
Cocaine
U.S. 2.4
Portugal 0.6
Cannabis
U.S. 13.7
Portugal 3.6
Amphetamines
U.S. 1.5
Portugal 0.2
Ecstasy
U.S. 1.4
Portugal 0.4
Kevin_Hunt
12:09 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
@ Melanie..you are the one who is 'fried' by govt propaganda. The war on some drugs is a bad racist joke.
“Meet Matthew Fogg, a former U.S. Marshal whose exploits led him to be nicknamed “Batman.” When he noticed that all of his team’s drug raids were in black areas, he suggested doing the same in the suburbs.
“If we were locking up everybody, white and black, for doing the same drugs they would’ve done the same thing with prohibition, they would’ve outlawed it,” Fogg says in the video produced by Brave New Films. “If it were an equal enforcement opportunity we wouldn’t be sitting here anyway.”
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/11/dea_agent_says_he_was_told_not_to_enforce_drug_laws_in_white_areas.html
Doug Woods
6:38 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013
I have to say Kevin pulled statistics on your ass.
Esoteric Knowledge
1:33 pm on Sunday, February 10, 2013
Cigarette users would probably do all those things you mentioned...but instead they go down to the corner store and buy cigarettes.
Thetruth
9:37 am on Friday, February 8, 2013
People don't rob for weed this is America this land of the free
Why I can't get high if I want to
Kevin Sterling
10:03 am on Friday, February 8, 2013
It's only a matter of time now. People like John have been spouting their fantasy land nonsense for decades, and most people have now become aware that the case in favor of prohibition is built on a platform of nothing but bald faced lies, half truths, and hysterical rhetoric. Don't hate people like John. The fact is that they're fools who actually believe the lies, and deserve our pity.
Kevin_Hunt
12:10 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
Why can't you grow industrial hemp?
No one has ever gotten high from industrial hemp, yet the govt still claims it is worse than the Ritalin-meth that the pharmaceutical companies give to three million kids.
FlyingTooLow
1:48 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
Here's another idea...release all those from prison convicted of ANY marijuana offense.
Law enforcement needs to re-direct its focus on crime...to those that are REAL crimes.
I was in Federal Prison for 5 years for a marijuana offense. No, it was not for simple possession. I was arrested aboard a Lockheed PV2 in Marianna, Florida...charged and convicted for conspiracy to import and distribute 12,000 pounds of marijuana.
As the 5 years rolled by, what I did see were armed bank robbers, coming and going...while I still sat there for marijuana. Most of the bank robbers only spent 17 to 24 months. But, I and my fellow 'drug offenders,'...we stayed for years.
I wrote about the escapades that led to my incarceration. I admit, I had a great time. No one was injured, no one was killed, firearms were not involved...there were no victims.
We were Americans...doing what Americans do best...living free.
The book: Shoulda Robbed a Bank
I would be honored by your review.
John Grant
4:09 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
Please read a book, You will notice that when you see a real talk about the pros and cons people that want legal weed point to studies and people like John M talk about it harming people when they dont know anyone harmed my this plant. I cant OD on weed but i bet you i can drink your self to death. You dont get chem addicted to weed but cigs and drinks are ok.
Marlon
3:55 am on Saturday, February 9, 2013
Mary Jane arguably the safest "drug" on the market. The pros far out way the cons when it comes to the debate. Times have changed more and more people have become knowledgeable about the ins and outs of certain drugs not just for their personal use, but for the sake of the argument. No one as ever died from this plant, overdose, or suffered from withdrawals anything beside catch a huge appetite maybe. A fact to support Kevin's usage chart; Out of any of those drugs "the people" chose Marijuana for varies good reasons. Prohibition of Marijuana causes more harm than it does good. Ended Marijuana Prohibition would change things for the better.
joeshmo
9:35 pm on Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Please do. I may finally have something that actually helps me sleep at night that I can use without fear of loosing my job if I get tested. Drugs that ruin lives in this country isn't thc , its heroin, crack, meth, and yes alcohol. That's because all of those have a physical dependence to them once used for a period of time. I smoked weed for years and quit fairly easily when I was hired at my company 10 years ago. I'd actually still smoke if it wasn't for the drug free workplace law. We all know that its complete BS that law even exists. Its not even fair. You smoke a joint on the weekend , go to work on a Monday and get tested for whatever reason, you get fired. Marijuana stays in your system anywhere from 8 days to a month so how can that law be justified. There is no proof based on a drug test that it was actually consumed at work. Do you see my point? Lots of people are in jail because of a plant. A PLANT. Not to mention how many have lost their jobs. It has many other uses too. To all those who don't know, please read about it. If it ain't for you then so be it, that doesn't mean others should loose their rites to something this earth has given us. Until then I'm stuck with ambien and possible sleep driving my car around town.